Thick Smoke Over the Balkans from Intense Wildfire Activity – September 16th, 2012

In the summer of 2012, hundreds of fires have been registered in Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Croatia (click here for previous images). In Croatia, where fires have been burning in Istria, on Rab and Mljet islands, near Pula in the northern Adriatic and Sibenik in Dalmatia.

The fires may have been caused by human carelessness, the custom of burning trash, and farmers burning fields for crops. In the latter two cases, fires quickly may burn out of control if winds change and the fire spreads. Macedonian authorities have also accused people wishing to cover up illegal logging sites by burning land.